Australia ready to join US coalition on Iraq, Julie Bishop says

Newport, Wales: The US is drawing together a coalition of nations for new military action in Iraq, including air strikes against the Islamic State extremists, and Australia is ready to play its part, Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop says.

"We are keen to play our part in ensuring that this heightened terrorist risk to Australia can be tackled head-on," Ms Bishop said.

Coalition of nations to face Islamic State: Julie Bishop at the NATO summit in Newport, Wales.

The Australian military are already drawing up contingency plans to send forces into the region to deal with the global threat posed by Islamic State, formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

However before the government gives final approval it wants to see who is in the coalition and get a firm timetable and clear objectives for the proposed air strikes so "we know what success looks like", Defence Minister David Johnston said.

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Ms Bishop and Mr Johnston spent Thursday and Friday in meetings with allies at the biennial NATO summit in Wales.

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One issue that dominated formal and bilateral meetings at the summit was the "sudden and bloody emergence of ISIL as a terrorist organisation that not only has an impact in the Middle East … but also globally," Ms Bishop said.

The meeting, hosted by US Secretary of State John Kerry and Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel, and including British Defence Minister Michael Fallon and Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond, discussed "supporting a US-led coalition that will seek to tackle ISIL head on," Ms Bishop said.

"The US air strikes have had some significant impact but there is more that needs to be done to ensure that ISIL doesn't continue to grow and spread its poison beyond the region."

Ms Bishop said the meeting discussed a range of options as to how the Islamic State threat can be eliminated.

"We talked about a range of ways that the countries can assist a US-co-ordinated approach."

Australia has already helped out with humanitarian supply drops and in supplying weapons to the Kurdish Peshmerga.

"The countries that have expressed a willingness to tackle ISIL head-on have also looked at what more can be done in terms of air strikes and Australia will respond when a formal request is made," Ms Bishop said.

"The red line is combat troops on the ground. There is no interest from any country present to commit combat troops but there is much that can be done to seek to combat ISIL in other ways and Australia is prepared to play its part."

ISIL was a direct domestic threat to Australia because of "hardened homegrown terrorists" who could return to Australia after fighting in Iraq.

"This is a far greater threat than we faced after Afghanistan," Ms Bishop said.

"The bigger risk could well be doing nothing and enabling [ISIL] to spread its poison and ideology way beyond Syria, Iraq, Lebanon. That's the concern that Australia faces and we take it very seriously."

But no formal request has yet come through, Ms Bishop said, so Australia has not yet committed to joining the action.

"We would weigh the options, we would weigh the risks. There must be a clear and proportionate role for Australia, there would have to be a humanitarian objective and there would have to be a realistic assessment of what resources and assets would be required and in what timeframe."

The humanitarian element came from ISIL attacking innocent civilians throughout Iraq, Syria and beyond.

Mr Johnston said contingency planning has been under way "from a very early point" in anticipation of air strikes, however the planning is at an early stage.

"We are some distance from specific requests," he said. "But naturally in the face of this tantamount genocide the Australian Defence Force starts to be ready."

"Let's see what the combined coalition wants to do, let's see who's in the coalition, let's see the inclusiveness of the government in Baghdad and let's consult with our friends and our allies, particularly the US as to the proper way forward."

"There's a number of very strong capabilities that we have."

The plan would need clear, defined, feasible objectives with a clear duration of the operation and "some definition of what success looks like," Mr Johnston said.

"We need to see the plan … to understand the length and breadth of the plan."

Fairfax Media understands the next key dates are the formation of a new government in Iraq and then a global leaders meeting to be convened by US President Barack Obama in New York later this month, before the new session of the United Nations General Assembly.